By two years of age your child should consistently be using 50 words independently

Understands simple questions and instructions

A huge explosion of language occurs during this time. Vocabulary expands from around 50 words at two years of age to 1200 words by three years

Short sentences will start to form and some grammatical features will begin to develop e.g. ‘ride bike’ may change to ‘riding bike’

Begins to understand simple two part instructions, most common words and routine based activities

From 3-4 years many more grammatical structures begin to appear in sentences

The meanings of most sentences are clear

Some common grammatical features are:

use of past tense (e.g. talked)

use of articles such as ‘a’ and ‘the’ (e.g. The ball is red)

use of pronouns such as ‘he’, ‘she’ and ‘they’ (e.g. He is running)

This is the time where children will ask lots of questions and can answer ‘who’, ‘what’ and ‘where’ questions such as: “what does a fireman do?”

Following more complex instructions should not be too difficult (e.g. “put your shoes under the bed and then grab your blue bag”)

By now speech and language should be resembling adult forms;

Sentences should be mostly grammatically correct

They can answer all wh- questions

They should have a large vocabulary to express various ideas, wants and needs

They can recount past experiences and hold a conversation

What if my child speaks more than one language?

It’s not a disadvantage to speak more than one language! There are normal differences that must be accounted for. If you are concerned, consult a speech therapist who can provide information about those normal differences and help determine the need for intervention.